Rotary engines with pistons mounted in a rotating rotor have been in the engine art for some time. See for example, the G. E. Henley, U.S. Pat. No. 1,048,308, and the H. Q. Anderson, U.S. Pat. No. 1,400,255. Through the years the other patents were issued on improvements and changes to the original rotary concept, the most notable of which was the Felix Wankel, U.S. Pat. No. 2,988,065. Other less notorious patents on the subject have been issued, including D. N. Blosser, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,438,358 and 3,373,723, M. Yokoi et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,793,998 and 5,261,365 and 5,345,905 to Daniel J Edwards.
The most pertinent prior art patents from the standpoint of the present invention are U.S. Pat. No. 7,219,633 to Robert A. McLeod, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,462 to Wiamir A, Bassett which describe engines using a process or a method similar to the present invention. In their disclosures both Bassett and McLeod recognize the advantage of using a cam or swash plate operably connected with a follower to create collapsible cylinders within a rotor. The piston is moved by the cam or swash plate to inhale and compress air which can then be compressed into a cylinder, fired and used in a combustion cycle. Both of these designs require a traditional four stoke cycle where air is drawn into the compression device on one downward stroke and air is compressed above the piston on one upward stroke of the piston. Both of the prior engines require several moving parts and complete their given combustion cycles within the compression cylinder created by the pistons and collapsible cylinders.
Accordingly, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide an engine system that is smaller, simpler to build, more durable, more efficient and capable of greater torque and power output, size for size, than any other rotary or reciprocating engine of the prior art.
Another object of the invention is to provide an engine that can inhale, compress and combust large amounts of air with a simple modified two stroke combustion process that will provide momentum, tangent energy and leverage in the combustion cycle to produce more power with greater efficiency then the traditional four stroke piston engine.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a rotary engine having exceptionally good characteristics for purging exhaust gases from the engine without the use of a poppet valve or poppet valve system.
Yet another and further object of the present invention is to provide an engine that uses a combination of rotary motion and the concurrent sliding of pistons together with a novel shape of the pistons to open and close rotary ports on the intake cycle so that the traditional reed valve system associated with the normal two stroke engine is eliminated, increasing volumetric efficiency without the use of reed valves or associated parts.
Additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon a reading of the following description of a preferred form of the invention.